Marriott revealed several weeks ago that they were turning elite member upgrades over to artificial intelligence. This was designed to reduce the time hotels spend on the task, to save salary costs.
This new Automated Complimentary Upgrade (‘ACU’) system rolled out today.
Instead of a hotel’s rooms controller running upgrades the day before check-in, an algorithm does it and the room controller signs off on the list. This effectively, then, replaces the Guest Experiences Dashboard ranking elite members in terms of priority for upgrade.
Here’s how the new automated AI upgrade process works, from Marriott’s own internal documentation in DLZ, or Digital Learning Zone.
Currently hotels receive lists of guests checking in each day with the priority order Marriott recommends for assigning upgrades – the hotel should go down that list and assign better rooms until upgrades are no longer available. Not all hotels do this, and hotels still decide what ‘better’ means.
- Hotels still decides what rooms count as inventory for automatic upgrades.
- It will mean less work for staff (and, ultimately, fewer staff)
It is especially interesting to me that the process runs out of what appears to be the same inventory as nightly upgrade awards (“ACU checks eligible reservations against remaining Elite Upgrades Inventory”). Remember that not all rooms are made available for upgrade, only rooms Marriott expects not to sell. So a junior suite might be available for sale, but not for upgrade.
And Marriott quietly removed from its terms the promise to upgrade elite members to the best available rooms, including suites.
If a suite is available for sale and ready at the time of check-in for the full length of the stay, Marriott hotels no longer have to give it to you. (And some hotels leave suites not fully cleaned and ready until someone books them for cash in order to avoid offering them as upgrades, anyway.)
It’s still not clear how much this changes for the guest. The ‘system’ should be processing upgrades based on available inventory, instead of leaving it up to humans. But the rooms controller might use more generous inventory than the computer will, leaving Marriott elites less likely to be upgraded. On the other hand, a squeaky wheel today might press for an upgrade and get an upgrade assigned to someone else unblocked. This new process – which notifies the member of their new AI upgrade in advance – makes that harder.
Ultimately if this was somehow going to be good for Marriott guests, we’d have heard about it from Marriott – and they have not trumpeted the change.
(HT: One Mile at a Time)
Why don’t we just skip ahead to the guillotines?
@Gary
How will this affect requests under suite night upgrades? Do those still process starting 5 days prior?
Will this affect franchised properties that are either managed by owner or by management company?
Tks
Marriott & United seem to care little about their guests… But they sure love their AI Bots…
I rarely stay at a Marriott property…
@Dave Flaat — Sadly, it’ll be all companies, soon enough, not just those two. And as they adopt these tools, then proceed to lay off nearly all their employees, one has to wonder, who’s even going to be traveling anymore? Like, our economy is largely consumer-based. So, if we kill off the consumers’ income/wealth, is all of this just around for a few at the top? We’re about to find out…
Still wait and see on the execution of this. How will a guest’s manually entered room requests like facing the park or facing the pool be factored into room assignments? That’s my main concern.
Wouldn’t it be better if Marriott followed Hilton and allowed guests to review floor-plans, select their specific rooms? These general requests, like ‘high floor’ or ‘near/away from an elevator,’ etc., are not always honored as it is. I mean, for those that care, that’s a pretty nifty feature (getting to pick your room). Sure, it’s not at all properties, but where it is offered, I’ve appreciated it. Haven’t seen any other brands allow this, so kudos to Hilton on that at least.
Front Desk staff are still welcome to upgrade guests based on availability, even if the automatic upgrade does not go through. This system actually works to ensure all properties are routinely upgrading elite members instead of holding back inventory for upsells.
I’d certainly rather Marriott corporate controlled AI assign room upgrades over the individual properties, though I suspect there will be plenty of overriding.
@Doug – no change to Nightly Upgrade AWards